Bitch Media - hormoneshttp://bitchmagazine.org/taxonomy/term/6992/0
enEnd of Gender: Not "Just A Tomboy"http://bitchmagazine.org/post/end-of-gender-transgender-kids-children-parenting-feminism
<p>At age two, female-assigned Tyler told parents Jean and Stephen he was a boy. After two years, they listened.</p>
<p>Jean and Stephen's support could save Tyler's life, but when their transgender child's story was <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/transgender-at-five/2012/05/19/gIQABfFkbU_story.html">featured in the <em>Washington Post</em></a> last week, online commenters&nbsp;accused the parents of overreacting to harmless "tomboyishness." &nbsp;</p>
<p>"Why would choosing gender even be a consideration for a 2 year old? Is there a possibility that the child picked up on the fact that they got more attention as the opposite sex?" one commenter wrote.</p>
<p>But for Tyler, the disconnect between his brain and his body made him want to hurt himself, a threat that his parents couldn't ignore. If Tyler remains male-identfied as he approaches adulthood, Jean wondered, what will happen to her child's mental heath when female puberty hits? Jean and her husband sought advice from psychiatrists and other parents of transgender kids to learn how to help him.<br /><br />As psychiatrist Jack Drescher noted in <a href="http://www.researchgate.net/publication/223135184_Gender_DysphoricGender_Variant_(GDGV)_Children_and_Adolescents_Summarizing_What_We_Know_and_What_We_Have_Yet_to_Learn">a recent article</a> in the <em>Journal of Homosexuality</em>, children have limited capacity to participate in decision making regarding their own medical treatment. Even adolescents can't legally provide informed consent. That means it's up to parents like Jean and Stephen to advocate for what their kids need. But when those needs involve medical intervention, the situation gets sticky.</p>
<p>Lesbian couple Pauline Moreno and Debra Lobel <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2011/09/27/health/transgender-kids/index.html">caused a media uproar</a> in 2007 when they allowed their trangender child, Tammy, to delay male puberty by taking hormone blockers.</p>
<p>"When she's ready, she'll be able to decide which way she's going to go through puberty," Moreno <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2011/09/27/health/transgender-kids/index.html">told CNN</a>. "She'll have either female hormones, or she'll stop the hormone blockers and become a man."</p>
<p>"This is child abuse. It's like performing liposuction on an anorexic child," Dr. Paul McHugh, professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University, responded.</p>
<p>But Tammy was so terrified of developing male secondary sex characterists that she was threatening to hang herself—hormone blockers could help her survive.</p>
<p>Puberty blockers are already used among non-trans kids who are experiencing premature puberty.&nbsp;<a href="http://www.cnn.com/2011/09/27/health/transgender-kids/index.html">According to Dr. Jennifer Hastings</a>, suspending puberty in trans kids gives them more time to decide what kinds of medical interventions they want or don't want later. Despite<a href="http://equalitymatters.org/factcheck/201110190006"> what Keith Ablow, my favorite reporter of misinformation, claims</a>, the effects are reversible.</p>
<p>Media commentators who accuse the parents with transgender kids of child abuse cite erroneous claims about hormone blockers, and refuse to acknowledge that children can speak for themselves are missing the life-or-death part of the conversation: Parents who listen to their kids, allow their kids to live as their preferred gender, and guide them through consensual medical decisions are choosing life for their children when the alternative could be far more serious than a temper tantrum.</p>
<p>Check out <a href="http://www.genderspectrum.org/">Gender Spectrum</a> and <a href="http://www.transactiveonline.org/index.php">TransActive</a> for more information about how we can support transgender children.</p>
<p><strong>Previously:</strong> <a href="/post/end-of-gender-kate-bornstein-book-review-queer-pleasant-danger-trans-issues-feminism"target="_blank">Kate Bornstein Saves Lives, Including Her Own: A Review of A Queer and Pleasant Danger</a>, <a href="/post/end-of-gender-argentina-trans-issues-feminism"target="_blank">Argentina Grants Gender Self-Determination</a></p>
http://bitchmagazine.org/post/end-of-gender-transgender-kids-children-parenting-feminism#commentschildrenhormonestransgenderSocial CommentaryTue, 22 May 2012 20:19:32 +0000Malic White17028 at http://bitchmagazine.orgReproductive Writes: A Pregnant Pausehttp://bitchmagazine.org/post/reproductive-writes-a-pregnant-pause
<p>Celine Dion stares at us from the front page of <a href=http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20343148,00.html><i>People</i></a> this week. 'My Private Hell' the headline shouts, without a hint of irony. There's nothing private about Celine Dion's IVF treatments in pursuit of a second child. 'Daily injections, painful tests' - we can know it all, if we want to. Looking at this cover, I wonder, 'How does this make women going through IVF treatment themselves feel?' I know how it makes me feel, and that's scared. Scared that when I hit my mid to late thirties I am going to be overcome with the unstoppable, uncontrollable, overwhelming 'maternal instinct' that will make me <i>need</i> to get pregnant with my own baby at whatever cost. </p>
<p><i>People</i> magazine makes out like Celine Dion is suffering from a terminal illness – the illness being infertility. On first take, it could be thought that such celebrity confessions make us all more aware of the ordeal infertile women must go through to become pregnant, and that through this awareness they will inspire our compassion and understanding of the situation. Yet, in the vein of sociologist <a hred="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_Foucault"target="_blank">Foucault's</a> estimation of sex in culture, the endless chatter about infertility only reinforces the social importance of fertility, and as such vilifies infertile women (or women who choose not to reproduce regardless of their fertility) whilst appearing to be empathizing.</p>
<p>Dion has stated she feels that by being <a href=http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Entertainment/celine-dion-speaks-family-children-career-good-morning-america/story?id=9869555>'an open book'</a> on her experience she is 'bonding' with other women who are going through the same treatments. Regardless of how Dion truly feels, as soundbites and five minute morning television slots and well-edited cover lines her attitude appears selfish and bordering on pathological. She told <i>Good Morning America</i> - <a href=http://celebrity-babies.com/2010/02/19/celine-dion-is-an-open-book-with-fertility-struggle/>'I have - <i>I have</i> - to try.'</a> A survey of the comments on the <i>People</i> website shows many women undergoing infertility treatment who are, at best, irritated that, despite already having a son and all the money she can possibly need to keep trying, Dion suggests she is connecting with them through publicly discussing her experience.</p>
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The message put out by celebrity magazines is often that famous women – powerful, successful, ostensibly happy women – are unable to find fulfillment until they have been pregnant and become a mother. The depiction of celebrity pregnancy and celebrity motherhood often serves to undermine the achievements of the women previous to or apart from their motherhood. It's no wonder a famous woman like Dion would feel encouraged to share her story of infertility – at least we know she's <i>trying</i>.</p>
<p>The Celine Dion story not only equates fertility with female worth and the social value of women, it also presents the desire to have a child, or the maternal instinct, as a kind of mania. Many a time have I been told that some day, I too, will <i>want</i> a baby - not as though I will make conscious decision to have a child, but that I will be overcome by my womanly instincts and be unable to resist this impulse. This is comparable to the social attitude towards the male sex drive – an instinct it is often suggested they have little conscious control over. The mania of the maternal instinct suggests women are controlled by, and victim to, their 'hormones' - the same source of judgment for PMS, or any behaviors to do with menstruation and pregnancy. Dion is shown here to be driven to a kind of masochism by this primal need. The story bears reflections of the diagnosis and treatment by Victorian doctors of 'hysterical' women. </p>
<p>Celine Dion is making a choice, however informed by her funds, to keep trying for a second child. But the media interpretation of her experience suggests women are incapable of <i>choosing</i> when it comes to children and must, like Dion, pursue pregnancy and motherhood at all costs. </p>
http://bitchmagazine.org/post/reproductive-writes-a-pregnant-pause#commentscelebrityCeline DionchildrenhormonesinfertilityIVFmaternal instinctmotherhoodPeopleReproductive WritesSocial CommentaryMon, 22 Feb 2010 18:06:23 +0000Holly Grigg-Spall2869 at http://bitchmagazine.org